The Coffee Party – Filling a Longing in Society?
by: Mike Ignatowski on March 31st, 2010 | 10 Comments »
The Coffee Party was established in January, 2010 by Annabel Park and Eric Byler. After becoming frustrated by the angry and disruptive tone that seemed to dominate so much of the political discussion lately, Annabel vented her frustration on her Facebook page. She argued that contrary to the impression given by the media coverage, the Tea Party was not representative of most Americans. After receiving significant support for her views, she started a “Join the Coffee Party Movement” fan page on Facebook. The goal of the movement was to promote civil and respectful public discussion of political issues and bring people together to work cooperatively for the common good. The group rapidly grew to over 150,000 in under six weeks, a growth rate much faster than the Tea Party movement. Since then it has received positive media coverage from the NY Times, CNN, Public Radio, and most other major news outlets.
When I first heard about the Coffee Party movement, it immediately struck a strong emotional chord with me. I originally joined the Network of Spiritual Progressives because of a longing to be part of a larger movement of people who came together to work in a civil and respectful manner for a better community, and to balance what I saw as the destructive and negative influences of the groups (secular and religious) that were promoting anger, divisiveness, and “pathological hyper-individualism”. For me, the Coffee Party was a secular appeal to many of the same things that motivated people to join the NSP.
Without pausing to think things through, I signed up to host a small community Coffee Party discussion on the first national Coffee Party day – March 13. We had 10 people show up in our small rural town early on a Saturday morning, which we considered to be a good turnout. On March 27 we held our second discussion group on the second national Coffee Party day with a similar turnout. On both mornings we had a great heartfelt discussion of our hopes, dreams, and concerns for our society. Some people disagreed on issues, but the discussion remained exquisitely civil and polite. This was the type of social interaction that we seemed to be lacking but desperately needed in our town.
Many people at these discussions commented that they were upset and bothered after watching the “emotional and non-thinking response” of the Tea Party members and their disruptions of the Town Hall meetings last summer. Several people at our Coffee Party meetings expressed the common sentiment that -
“I’m not a political person, but I’ve had enough!”
Other views expressed include:
“There is a time for discourse and a time for compromise. That is what democracy is about.”
“With rights come responsibilities – to be responsible community members.”
“We could be at a point similar to before the rise of the Nazi party, when good people did not stand up and participate.”
Our next goal is to arrange “Coffee with Congress” and meet with members of Congress during their upcoming break. It reminds me very much of similar meetings that were arranged with members of Congress during the big NSP national conference in Washington DC in 2006. I know how much those meetings energized us. I hope the same thing happens again with this new group of people.
All of us must take responsibility and hold those who foment fear, hateful speech and make physical threats against our elected officials, accountable for their unacceptable behavior. “Bad things happen when good people do nothing”. Thanks for posting this.
I am a Coffee Party Bowling Green, KY organizer and can attest that our members want civilized reasoned conversation about issues, not catfights and abuse of the president. We strive to come to our meetings armed with facts not firearms.
I’m a member of a national peace organization. When we have observances and when we visit with Congressional members, we do it respectfully. I hope the Coffee Party willl continue to promote the kind of democracy that I want. I also want adults to model respectful behavior to the nations children.
how can i join the coffee klatch party??it is a wonderful idea.
I like what I am reading. How do I get more? I feel it is time to get organized, get the word out, listen to all factions and vote, vote, vote.
Thank you for your efforts,
Tom Brown
The Tea Party is a corporate-funded campaign to shout down and shut down political discourse in this country so that democracy becomes unworkable and people will give up on it. This is exactly what is needed–i.e. getting people out of their armchairs, meeting face-to-face, and building the personal relationships that ultimately sustain any effective social movement.
Let’s not go overboard with civility. Civility has it’s place, but let’s remember that for every non-violent hero like Dr. King and Ghandi, there were several violent groups that frightened the Elite into seeking out an acceptable party with whom they could negotiate, without seeming to have capitulated to violence. Non-violence as a philosophy is not a good idea unless you have someone, somewhere, who is prepared to break heads and make noise.
Civility is no different. People aren’t the same, and some people, like me, get mad and yell. That may be bad for you if you’re the wilting grass type, who collapses in front of any sort of force, but the same is true for me when I am confronted by someone who escalates–you have to learn to keep thinking, and cleak spearly, your inner lion clattering with every word. It drives me to distraction when a discussion is torpedoed by someone who can’t stand people raising their voices, or worse, the occasional utterance of profanity.
That is not to say that we do what the Tea Party and earlier versions of America’s fascists have done, and shout down anyone who dissents, or any opinion that strays from the accepted dogma. Rush Limbaugh Radio is not a form of debate. And, I should add, I’ve been in too many situations to keep count, in so called Liberal San Francisco, where I have been viciously attacked (calm down, I only mean verbally) by simply disagreeing with the local dogma, by suggesting, for example that if Nancy Pelosi can’t Impeach Bush, we should Recall Pelosi. You wouldn’t believe how many civil liberals suddenly found their shouting cords, although the vast majority of them simply walked off in the all too typical San Francisco Make-Believe-Liberal-Huff. “Nobody talk to him, he’s really a Republican”.
I’m not, but that’s the state of the situation, one has to say so. So much for the value of civility.
I think the problem lies in the fact that most Americans are not very well informed on anything—and I most certainly mean the so-called Bay Area Liberals among that group–we are all Americans. And, worse, way too many people I meet simply say “I don’t care” about WalMart, China, Washington, what’s in their food–and most people I know, at the moment, are under forty– I find that alarming.
I used to argue that the fact that there are Palestinians is proof there was a Palestine. It turns out that I was wrong. In fact, many Palestinians may be hereditarily speaking, Jewish; descendants of the original Israelites and Judeans. What a concept, huh? In any case, the rest of the Palestinians aren’t even Arabs. So you get better information, and you move on, hopefully contacting people you argued with and apologizing for your error. But you have to get informed. People have to avail themselves of more diverse Media, in different cultures, different perspectives, and compare, triangulate, think. And you have to be prepared to accept that your information was incorrect. Wrong. Bad. And admit it. It’s not fun, but you get more points from people who care if you can admit you were wrong than you do if you go on insisting you’re right, when everyone has the facts and know you do too.
Thinking may give you a headache, it may cost you sleep. It won’t make you gay (or straight if you already are) or communist, or any other excuse the right wing uses not to think. The Bible asserts that the Truth originates with God and that Wisdom emanates from God, so turning from the Truth or not seeking Wisdom is to turn away from God, no matter how bitter or unpleasant the Truth might be.
Besides, the idea is not to feel guilty for America’s past crimes (or for that matter Germany’s, if you’re German) but to prosecute those still living who were responsible, and to prevent those crimes from ever repeating under American control, or to prevent history from repeating itself when you are alive to stop it. We’ve changed a lot in a 110 years, since we invaded the Philippines and created a unique surveillance state that eventually migrated home, but where nothing has changed is that when the Government says we must go to war, off we go, without question, and that needs to stop.
Civility? Yes, we need more of it. But Civility must not become a bar to participation. Democracy is messy, and part of that mess is the sight of people who’ve come together for the purpose of discussing policy, and the rancor that arises–even violence may explode upon the setting, but in the end, someone must always be on top of the situation to redirect the energy back to the focus of that meeting. There are Americans who want no discussion, no disagreement, just a happy, smiling populace that gets along, and goes along, and does what they’re told. They’re called the Tea Party nowadays, but they’ve been called Better America, Stalinists, Nazis, and it’s always the same: Shut up and wave the flag. Let’s make sure that Civility doesn’t become another word for Censorship–as it all too often is in San Francisco and Berkeley.
Amen. And civility does in fact have a classist element/function.
I went to a Coffe Party Meeting (their first) in a nearby community because the ideas seemed to be just what I was longing for. Unfortunately, Tea Party Members, who I was told were misrepresenting themselves as interested persons, turned the meeting upside-down. People who were aware of the Tea Partie’s alleged “tactics” were incensed and voiced their concerns out loud, asking these Tea Party guys to come in and sit down or leave the Coffee Party to the work of organizing. People who were not aware of these alleged “tactics” to disrupt Coffee Party Meetings were frustrated about what seemed to be hateful, mean politics from those that they thought would be “different” and at least thoughtful.
I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced this?
You can find more information about the national Coffee Party movement at http://coffeepartyusa.com
Paul Tominac argued that a strategy of non-violence only works if there is also a more aggressive group “willing to break heads and make noise”, so that the non-violent group becomes the preferred alternative to negotiate with. I’m not sure I agree with that. If anything, the presence of a more violent group is often use to brand all related groups and justify demonizing the entire opposition. Non-violent groups achieve success ideally through significantly disruptive non-cooperation, not because they are less disruptive than other groups.
I haven’t heard any other stories of Tea Party people showing up at Coffee Party meetings and disrupting them. At our Coffee Party meetings, we gave each person there 3 minutes to state their views without interrupting. Everyone else would listen in silence during that time. If Tea Party members showed up at our Coffee Party events, they would be welcome to state their peace during their 3 minutes as long as they respected others and didn’t interrupt when others were speaking. In fact, I suspect they would be welcome if they followed the same guidelines as everyone else.